SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS OF SALVATION

1. APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
“THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL”
EVANGELII GAUDIUM

2. • POPE RANCIS: a breath of fresh air
 Progressive build up of his
predecessors
 Latin American experience –
recovering of theology of
liberation
 Vatican II advocate  new way
of being church via Church of the
Poor  BEC
 Main concern: recapture the
freshness of the Gospel 
mission of proclaiming with joy
OVERVIEW

3. • Pope Francis is moving fast to
advance his “dream of … a
missionary impulse, capable of
transforming everything, so that the
Church’s customs, ways of doing
things, times and schedules,
language and structures can be
suitably channeled for the
evangelization of today’s world.”
 A “dream,” expressed in
passionate and sometimes
admonitory terms
• “The title — ‘The Joy of the Gospel’
— says it all: We need to speak
boldly about Christ and the Gospel
and do it with joyful lives, engaging
the world”
 puts the New Evangelization at
the very center of the Church
and orients everything else
around it
 It’s all about recovering the
missionary vocation of everyone
EVANGELII GAUDIUM: BLUEPRINT
OF NEW VANGELIZATION

4. • HIGHLIGHTS:
 the importance of
evangelization,
 the challenges that impede its
progress,
 the dole-out service to the poor,
 the hunger for good homilies
and
 the need for courageous
believers prepared to share the
Word in slum neighborhoods
and corporate boardrooms.
• “Pope Francis invites all Christians
everywhere to a renewed personal
encounter with Jesus Christ and
identifies evangelization as the
center of the Church’s concerns.
• “This joy is not superficial optimism,
but manifests itself in a willingness
and preparedness for mission.
“Pope Francis is clear: The one
thing that positions everything that
the Church seeks to accomplish,
from:
 worship to catechesis to efforts
to serve the needs of the poor,
is the central and urgent task of
evangelization.”

5. • The call to evangelize is accompanied
by an unapologetic critique of U.S.-
style free-market economies, which,
according to the Pope, engender
broad indifference to the plight of the
poor.
 the Pope’s critique of the
economy reflected the guiding
principles of Catholic social
teaching developed over the past
two centuries.
• Economic markets, “should serve the
common good…” Pope also realizes
that the materialism of the West is a
real impediment to the New
Evangelization, because it often
results in a practical atheism.”
 From “ Welfare Mentality”- calls
on the faithful to pursue hands-on
service and spiritual support for
the needy.
He asks us to be mindful, also
of a poverty that is spiritual:
those who may be rich in
money but are addicted to
consumerism. They ignore
God in their lives, and they fail
to serve their brothers and
sisters.

6. ““The work of evangelization ought not to
be hectic, with people running in all
directions at once. Rather, he calls us to
begin any work with prayer and to be
grounded in prayer.”
 Prayer and contemplation take us
away from selfishness, not from
people.
The apostolic exhortation has stirred
intense debate regarding the
direction of this pontificate on non-
economic issues, like Curial reform
and the role of women.
 The Pope clearly signals his
desire to decentralize the Church,
reducing the size of the Vatican
Curia while fostering consultation
and action by national bishops’
conferences, dioceses and
parishes.
• directly or indirectly affirm Church
teaching on abortion, homosexuality
and religious freedom, tamping down
speculation that Francis will set aside
unpopular moral teachings to attract
alienated Catholics. It is not
‘progressive’ to try to resolve
problems by eliminating a human
life” (214).
“I do not want a Church concerned with
being at the center and then ends by
being caught up in a web of obsessions
and procedures”

7. • The work of evangelization also
provides further context for the
Pope’s call for greater
participation by women in the
Church at all levels of “decision-
making.” more changes are still
needed, including how we view
motherhood.
 many Catholics, who have
been formed by a culture
that dismisses the
complementary value of
gender differences, do not
understand the nature and
origins of the all-male
Catholic priesthood.
• “When you see the priesthood as
a position of power, it makes no
sense that women can’t be
priests,” “We need to see it as a
way of being.

8. JOY OF THE GOSPEL

9. • THE JOY OF THE
GOSPEL fills the hearts
and lives of all who
encounter Jesus.
• The Gospel, radiant with
the glory of Christ’s cross,
constantly invites us to
rejoice.
• Joy adapts and changes,
but it always endures…
• The delightful and
comforting joy of
evangelizing is goodness
shared.
• Eternal joy: Christ is the
“eternal Gospel” (Rev 14:6);
he “is the same yesterday
and today and forever”
A JOY EVER NEW,
A JOY WHICH IS SHARED

10. • The Pope invites the reader to
“recover the original freshness of
the Gospel”, finding “new
avenues” and “new paths of
creativity”.
• There is a need for a “pastoral
and missionary conversion and a
“renewal” of ecclesiastical
structures to enable them to
become “more mission-oriented”.
• Every form of authentic
evangelization is always “new”.
ETERNAL NEWNESS OF THE GOSPEL

11. • New evangelization is carried
out in three principal settings:
• pastoral ministry: seeks to
help believers to grow
spiritually so that they can
respond to God’s love ever
more fully in their lives
• the baptized but ‘unchurch’:
need to restore the joy of
faith to their hearts and
inspire a commitment to the
Gospel.
• those who do not know
Jesus Christ or who have
always rejected him: It is
not by proselytizing that the
Church grows, but “by
attraction”.
NEW EVANGELIZATION

12. THEMES
 a) the reform of the Church in her missionary outreach;
 b) the temptations faced by pastoral workers;
 c) the Church, understood as the entire People of God which
evangelizes;
 d) the homily and its preparation;
 e) the inclusion of the poor in society;
 f) peace and dialogue within society;
 g) the spiritual motivations for mission.

13. I. A CHURCH WHICH GOES FORTH
• Go forth from our own comfort
zones, reach out to the
peripheries
• The Gospel joy which enlivens
the community of disciples is a
missionary joy.
• Evangelizing community takes the
first step, gets involved, touches
human suffering.
• The Church should not be afraid
to re-examine “certain customs
not directly connected to the heart
of the Gospel, even some of
which have deep historical roots”.
• Liturgy evangelizes: a celebration
and task = source of renewal
II. PASTORAL ACTIVITY AND
CONVERSION
• a “missionary option”, = is a
missionary impulse capable of
transforming everything
• A “sound decentralization” is
necessary:
• The papacy and the central
structures of the universal Church
also need to hear the call to
pastoral conversion.
CHAPTER ONE: THE CHURCH’S MISSIONARY
TRANSFORMATION

14. III. FROM THE HEART OF THE
GOSPEL
• missionary heart affects
the way we communicate
the message.
• Pastoral ministry in a
missionary style is not
obsessed with the
transmission of too much
doctrines but on essentials
(heart of the gospel)
IV. A MISSION EMBODIED WITHIN
HUMAN LIMITS
• Church needs to grow in her
interpretation of the revealed
word and in her understanding
of truth.
• task of exegetes and
theologians to help “the
judgment of the Church to
mature”
• Other sciences
• Relevant expressions of the
truth
V. A MOTHER WITH AN OPEN HEART
• A Church which “goes forth” is a Church
whose doors are open.
• “Go forth…to those who cannot repay you”

15. The Parish is the presence of the
Church in a given territory, an
environment for listening to God’s
Word, for growth in the Christian life,
for dialogue, proclamation, charitable
outreach, worship and celebration…

16. I. SOME CHALLENGES OF TODAY’S WORLD
 No to an economy of exclusion
• everything comes under the laws
of competition and the survival of
the fittest, where the powerful
feed upon the powerless.
 No to the new idolatry of money
• human is reduced to one of one’s
needs alone: consumption
 No to a financial system which rules
rather than serves
 No to the inequality which spawns
violence
• inequality provokes a violent
reaction from those excluded from
the system, but because the
socioeconomic system is unjust at
its root.
 Some cultural Challenges
• superficial and the provisional
• Secularization, individualism
• Family and relationships
 Challenges to inculturating Faith
• It is imperative to evangelize cultures
in order to inculturate the Gospel.
• Popular piety itself can be the starting
point for healing and liberation from
these deficiencies.
 Challenges from urban cultures
• A completely new culture has come to
life and continues to grow in the
cities.
CHAPTER TWO: AMID THE CRISIS OF
COMMUNAL COMMITMENT

17. II. TEMPTATIONS FACED BY PASTORAL
WORKERS
• Yes to the challenge of a missionary
spirituality
 Caution: a heightened individualism,
a crisis of identity and a cooling of
fervor
• No to selfishness and spiritual sloth
 Activities without adequate motivation,
without a spirituality
 This pastoral acedia can be caused
by a number of things. Some fall into
it because they throw themselves into
unrealistic projects and are not
satisfied simply to do what they
reasonably can.
 the “gray pragmatism” in which all
appears to proceed normally, while in
reality faith is wearing down and
degenerating into small-mindedness”.
• No to a sterile pessimism
 Defeatism stifles boldness and zeal
 spiritual “desertification”
• Yes to the new relationships brought by
Christ
 Isolation, can find expression in a
false autonomy which has no place
for God.
• No to spiritual worldliness (93)
 Hides behind appearance of piety.
 Lurks behind fascination with social
and political gain
• No to warring among ourselves
 Beware of the temptation of
jealousy!
• Other ecclesial challenges
 Empowerment of the Laity, Women
and youth

18. The church faces three temptations: the
temptation to turn the Gospel message into an
ideology; the temptation to run the church like a
business; and the temptation of clericalism.
CLERICALISM IS EVIL IN THE
CHURCH…
"The priest clericalizes the
layperson, and the layperson
kindly asks to be clericalized…."
He believes that "the phenomenon
of clericalism explains, in great
part, the lack of maturity and
Christian freedom

19. God save us from the worldly Church
with superficial spiritual and pastoral
trappings! LET US NOT ALLOW
OURSELVES TO BE ROBBED OF THE
GOSPEL AND OF MISSIONARY VIGOR!
It is imperative to evangelize
cultures in order to inculturate
the Gospel.

20.  Charisms at the service of a
communion which evangelizes
 Culture, thought and education ( to
pros, scientific and academic circles,
‘new areopagus)
I. THE ENTIRE PEOPLE OF GOD
PROCLAIMS THE GOSPEL [111-134]
 Evangelization is the task of the
Church.
 The salvation which God has
wrought, and the Church joyfully
proclaims, is for everyone.
 A people of many faces
 We are all missionary disciples
 “sensus fidei” (sense of the
faithful) to discern God’s will
 The evangelizing power of popular
piety (faith embodied in a culture)
 Person to person (life of dialogue)
CHAPTER THREE: THE PROCLAMATION
OF THE GOSPEL
To evangelize is
to make the RG
present in the
world

21. • II. THE HOMILY [135-144]
The homily is the touchstone for
judging a pastor’s closeness
and ability to communicate to
his people.
 The liturgical context:
leading people to
sacramental communion.
 This means that the words
of the preacher must be
measured, so that the Lord,
more than his minister, will
be the center of attention.
 Word which sets hearts on
fire: The challenge of an
inculturated preaching
consists in proclaiming a
synthesis, not ideas or
detached values.
III. PREPARING TO PREACH
 time of study, prayer, reflection
and pastoral creativity
 Personalizing the Word
 Simplicity and clarity
 Positive preaching always offers
hope, points to the future, does
not leave us trapped in negativity

22. The Homily cannot be a form of
entertainment… it should give meaning
to the celebration…it should be brief and
avoid taking a semblance of a speech
or a lecture.

23. IV. EVANGELIZATION AND THE
DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE
KERYGMA (proclamation of the Good
News)
 In catechesis we have
rediscovered the fundamental
role of the first announcement
or kerygma, Good News of the
Kingdom of God)
 mystagogical renewal:
Catechesis also demands a
suitable environment and an
attractive presentation, the use
of eloquent symbols (“to lead
through the mysteries”)
 Personal Accompaniment in
processes of growth

24. I. COMMUNAL AND SOCIETAL
EFFECTS OF THE KERYGMA
 Social content: life in
community and engagement
with others = moral implication:
CHARITY
 Christian conversion demands
reviewing especially those
areas and aspects of life
“related to the social order and
the pursuit of the common
good”.
II. THE INCLUSION OF THE
POOR IN SOCIETY
 working to eliminate the
structural causes of poverty
and to promote the integral
development of the poor
 Solidarity: creation of a new
mindset which thinks in terms
of community and the priority
of the life of all over the
appropriation of goods by a
few.
 Concern for the vulnerable
CHAPTER FOUR:
THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF
EVANGELIZATION

25. III. THE COMMON GOOD AND PEACE IN SOCIETY
• Time is greater than space-
 This principle enables us to work
slowly but surely, without being
obsessed with immediate results.
 accept the tension between fullness
and limitation, and to give a priority to
time.
 Giving priority to time means being
concerned about initiating processes
rather than possessing spaces.
• Unity prevails over conflict
 The message of peace is not about
a negotiated settlement but rather
the conviction that the unity
brought by the Spirit can harmonize
every diversity.
• Realities are more important than
ideas
 This calls for rejecting the various
means of masking reality:
 angelic forms of purity,
 dictatorships of relativism,
 empty rhetoric,
 objectives more ideal than
real,
 brands of fundamentalism,
 ethical systems bereft of
kindness,
 intellectual discourse bereft of
wisdom.

26. IV. SOCIAL DIALOGUE AS A
CONTRIBUTION TO PEACE
• Three areas of dialogue:
 dialogue with states
 dialogue with society
(including dialogue with
cultures and the sciences )
 dialogue with other believers
• Dialogue between faith, reason
and science
 Faith is not fearful of reason;
on the contrary, it seeks and
trusts reason, since “the light
of reason and the light of
faith both come from God
• Ecumenical dialogue
• Relations with Judaism: With them,
we believe in the one God who acts in
history, and with them we accept his
revealed word.
• Interreligious dialogue
• Social dialogue in a context of
religious freedom
 A healthy pluralism, one which
genuinely respects differences
and values

27. • Spirit-filled evangelizers means
evangelizers fearlessly open to the
working of the Holy Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit also grants the
courage to proclaim the newness of
the Gospel with boldness (parrhesía)
in every time and place, even when it
meets with opposition.
• “spirited” = refers to some interior
impulse which encourages, motivates,
nourishes and gives meaning to our
individual and communal activity.
I. REASONS FOR A RENEWED
MISSIONARY IMPULSE
• Spirit-filled evangelizers are
evangelizers who pray and work.
• Personal encounter with the
saving love of Jesus
• The word of God also invites us
to recognize that we are a people
• The mysterious working of the
risen Christ and his Spirit
• The missionary power of
intercessory prayer
CHAPTER FIVE
SPIRIT-FILLED EVANGELIZERS

28. II. MARY, MOTHER OF EVANGELIZATION
• With the Holy Spirit, Mary is
always present in the midst of the
people.
• She is the Mother of the Church
which evangelizes, and without
her we could never truly
understand the spirit of the new
evangelization.
• Star of the new evangelization:
Mary is able to recognize the
traces of God’s Spirit in events
great and small.

29. MISSION OF
EVANGELIZATION WORLD OF
CHANGE
Catechists:
Agents of
Evangelization
JOY
SPIRIT OF
RENEWAL
NEW WAY OF
BEING
CHURCH
Heart of the Gospel
transforms …
MISSIO DEI